Whispering to the World
by Sara Eleanor Rose
Summary: "...I closed my eyes and fought to remember. What had I thought of him? What had I thought of his class? I really wasn't sure. Once he'd started speaking, everything else just sort of... faded."  Oneshot.


Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any characters associated with it. If I did, you wouldn't be reading this on . You'd probably be watching it on the BBC, which I also don't own.

* * *

_LUCY SAXON  
__But she knew. Harry, she knew everything. You promised. You said Archangel was 100%._

_THE MASTER:  
__Um, 99, 98?_

_LUCY:  
__But if she's asking questions, then who else? How much time have we got?_

_- The Sound of Drums_

_,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,_

_How did I get here? _I wondered silently.  
I was sitting in the passenger side of somebody else's car, struggling to remember. The whole day seemed a bit of a blur.  
I remembered coming into school after going on a vacation with my family, and being greeted by my closest friends, Zoe and Ellie. I remembered Ellie telling me about our English teacher's mysterious disappearance, and I definitely remembered Zoe breaking in excitedly about the Real English Guy who replaced him. I _vaguely_ remembered Ellie saying something about him giving her the creeps, but I couldn't be sure if that's what she really said. It all seemed so faint...  
I closed my eyes and fought to remember. What had she thought of him? What had I thought of him? What had I thought of his class? I really wasn't sure. Once he'd started speaking, everything else just sort of...faded.  
I absentmindedly tapped the the door of the car in a four beat rhythm.  
What was his name again? I'm sure it started with an 'S'...  
_tap tap tap tap  
__tap tap tap tap  
_"Are you alright, Sophia?"  
His soft, accented voice broke through my reverie, and as I turned to look at him, it all came flooding back like a recurring nightmare.

Ellie had indeed said that our new "English" teacher gave her the creeps, and I had agreed with her in the end. The was something about the way that his smile never _quite_ reached his eyes, as if he truly regarded us as stray dogs, or perhaps well dressed monkeys. I'd said as much to Ellie and Zoe, the latter of whom thought I was insane to think he was anything less than sincere.  
I thought back over the English class, and came to a horrible realization: I couldn't remember it.  
Oh, sure, I remembered being there. I remembered him talking, and I remembered it being good...  
_tap tap tap tap_  
I remembered hanging on his every word.  
_tap tap tap tap_  
I remembered agreeing with everything he said.  
_tap tap tap tap_  
But what _had _he said?

I racked my brain, searching for something, _anything_. A word that I could clearly recall him saying, but all I could come up with was, "it was good."  
The horror of the situation only mounted as I remembered what had brought me to this point.  
My mum had called during the rehearsal for my school's production of Little Shop of Horrors, to say she'd been in an accident. She was fine, but the car was in pieces, (literally), and she couldn't pick me up from school.  
I had every intention of going home with Zoe, who was crewing and whose home was a twenty-minute walk from mine, but He offered me a ride home. I opened my mouth to give him a thousand reasons why that would be a terrible idea, but then his eyes met mine, and I found myself agreeing.  
So, here I was, being driven home by Harry Saxon.

"Are you alright, Sophia?" he asked again. "You always seem so jumpy around me."  
"Do I? Sorry, I don't mean to."  
He laughed.  
"That's what I mean! You're always apologizing, you hardly ever speak to me, you never look me in the eye. Why are you so frightened of me?"  
"You'll think it's stupid."  
"I promise I won't. Tell me?"  
"It's really difficult to explain...I mean, you look normal. You sound normal. You seem, for all intents and purposes, to _be_ perfectly normal. But there's just something... wrong about you. It feels like somebody visited earth once, and tried to build a human from memory. You're singing all the right notes, but you're not making music. I don't know, it's complicated."  
"No, it makes sense, in a...complicated, loony sort of way. Have you told anyone else about this?"  
I actually considered answering truthfully, but something held me back. I almost felt like I needed to protect Zoe and Ellie.  
"No, I haven't."  
"I wouldn't, if I were you. Not everyone would understand like I do."  
Something about the way he half-whispered it sent shivers down my spine.  
"Okay," I said, noncommittally.  
We pulled into my driveway. He leaned forward and stared me straight in the eye.  
"Promise me you won't tell anyone."  
I'm still not sure why I promised him.  
I got into my house, and without a word to my mom, got in my bed and huddled under the covers until the trembling subsided.  
Cuz you know what?  
I don't think he's human.

* * *

Additional disclaimer: I don't own Little Shop of Horrors either, in case you were wondering.


End file.
